retail assistant manager

brand representative

manager in training

assistant manager

associate manager

Abercrombie & Fitch

I worked at Abercrombie and Fitch as an Assistant Manager for about a year and a half. Before, I worked there for about 5 years as a regular associate. Coming into the manager position I knew what to expect, low pay, grumpy customers, loss prevention issues, poor upper management, really bad work-life balance and working with college students.

Throughout my tenure as a manager, it just kept getting worse and worse. There are few opportunities for career growth - if any, and when they do promote a manager, it is usually done from favoritism rather then work performance. I am not saying that I wanted to get promoted, but I saw in my opinion, excellent managers who did everything. They were spot on according to the A&F standards, got consistent high secret shopper scores, had great relationships with their associates, had worked for the company as managers for longer then 2 years, and yet they were consistently overlooked when there were promotional opportunities available. Eventually, most of them burned out and eventually found other jobs elsewhere, which made it tough on morale with the associates that they left behind, because those associates looked up to them.

Anyway, for a typical day at work (if you are the opening manager) one can expect to get to the store by 9am and start with the opening procedures, alongside an associate who usually should be cleaning and tidying up the store where they can. The store then opens at 10am and closes at 9pm, from this point your focus lies in customer interaction and making sure that the presentations look as great as possible. This can be a tough task especially if you are located in a busy retail area with a lot of incoming shoppers. If you opened you usually get your 1-hour break with the closing manager comes in at 1 or 2pm and you are off at 6pm. If you are the closing manager you usually get your break around 4-5pm (of 1-hour before the opening manager leaves). Closing manages then close the store by about 9pm and performs the closing operations and cleans the store for about 2 hours until 11pm with 2-3 associates. In addition, to a typical day, depending on location, you may have to deal with consistent loss prevention (LP) issues. This basically means theft, or shady people. Normally you can not accuse them of stealing even when you have seen them blatantly do it in front of your face which makes things difficult and awkward when dealing with them. The most you can do is threaten to call security to have them escorted or followed out but even then, it probably will not deter them from coming in and trying to do their shady stuff again. Finally, everyday you will have to leave at least a morning and evening message with your district manager and sometimes talk to them by phone or in person throughout the day about the current business and operational issues.

The most difficult aspects of the job would definitely be the work-life balance, working at A&F makes it tough for one to plan their life accordingly since they process their schedules week to week. Sometimes you may want to plan something ahead of time by say a month, however you will not know for sure if you will get the day/time off until the week before when the store manager is doing the schedule. You can request the day/time off, but even then you have to make sure the day does not fall on "black out" days or times when nobody is allowed to take time off such as the busy retail times during black friday/Thanksgiving week or December. Also, if you want a regular monday-friday work schedule, you can forget it as it never happens and you hardly get schedules where you consistently have 2 days off back to back. Another difficult aspect is that A&F constantly requires managers to hire or "recruit" new associates. The problem with that is that it makes it tough to develop and train veteran associates since the new incoming associates takes away hours from them (there is a small set budget of hours every store gets and stores usually get yelled at by the district manager if they go over budget), eventually this leads to the veteran associates complaining they do not get enough hours whereas the new associates are also trying to get hours. It can make for some awkward conversations between associates and managers. The last aspect which I found tough was the pay. I started off at $30k but at the end of the year made about $38k. That was because there were many weeks where I worked 6 day work weeks (Assistant Managers do not get salary, they are still payed hourly) so I was paid overtime for the 6th day, also even if I did only work the regular 5 days a week I always went overtime because of the tasks they give the managers with the little time they give almost always makes us stay overtime.

The most enjoyable part of the job is the people. There are definitely a great amount of people you can work with here from all kinds of different backgrounds.

If you do not have your degree, I do not recommend committing to this company. The only thing you can currently do without a degree is part time, lead stock, overnight manager, and stockroom manager (only in select stores) You cannot make any more money than about $14/hr without a degree, forever. (*Note my comments below about the schedule, if you think $14/hour isn't bad) If you have your degree, know that the end of the road is only 5-7 years away if you're lucky, and many, many long nights and days away. The time that you spend being tired and miserable heavily outweighs the time you will spend enjoying your job. 

Management here is political. While I'm sure that this is consistent throughout many companies, I will still say that when a mistake is made and management decides they don't like you, there is no recovering. They will continue to set you up for failure, watch you fail, document you for failing, and get rid of you. It's cut throat, and very much a sink or swim atmosphere.

There are some very good points to make about this company - compensation is very competitive considering the current job market, but know this: this company requires that you wear clothing at least consistent with their current fashion. They prefer that you buy their clothing. This is so the company can earn some of it's money back internally. There are seasonal packets they hand out to the associates that demonstrate what you should be wearing. They give you a two week window to pick up the clothing and will document you if you show up not in "look policy" or if you are not adequately managing your associates in look policy. 

Unless you are on salary (Store Manager, General Manager, District Manager, Regional Manager), you will not be compensated time and a half for overtime. They work on a system that cuts your weekly wage in half (resulting usually in you making less than the associates you're managing) after 40 hours, but since it's above the minimum wage after being cut in half, it still falls under the labor laws as allowable. You will almost always work more than 40 hours a week as the workload flexes dramatically from week to week.

As a manager, you will receive 2 weeks of paid vacation, 5 sick days and 3 personal days. This is very nice as the stress of the job can have an adverse effect on your health, and that is not an exaggeration. 

As a manager, your schedule consistency is not guaranteed. You're going to work some 8-5's, then 11-8's, then 6pm-6am, then 1-10, then 4pm-1am, etc. It's all over the board. Note the title of this review - "work life balance isn't there." You cannot plan every day activities with this job. 

If you have you're degree, this is a good job to spend a few years getting some management experience, and getting your feet wet in the job market. As a career, there is not a whole lot of job security or longevity. 

Worked for this company for almost 3 years at many different stores around the state, both full-price and outlet stores. The company strives to do great things, running charities, holding events for purpose than praise, camps, concerts, etc. as one would know from looking at the job board in the stock room. It's respectable in the sense that it wants to change it's name/vision from that of a very menial CEO who looked nothing like the people who he liked to model to be the face of the company.

Besides that, working here was definitely an experience to have, especially if you're starting your work experience. The pay was low compared to the work you're needed to do (not even just the work required, this location is just super busy), and the hours are long, even when it's a busy day. Management was pretty solid, not much complaints there besides a little favoritism but they definitely try their best when they're into it.

Cross-trained as a Brand Rep, learned to do lots of things so I was basically autonomous in the store, doing when I needed to do when I needed to do them without intervening on another associate's duties. Definitely recommend learning how to navigate and work the stock room and vice versa for impact/stock employees. It's a fun job but it doesn't pay that well and doesn't offer raises or commission, benefits, or incentives besides the managers offering to buy you food one day for working so hard one holiday weekend. Sometimes some associates are hired on that put very little effort into the job, which puts more work on those who are actually working to accomplish things, but that's usually only when available employees are low and foot traffic is high.

Katy Mills, Tx was a peculiar store to work at. It's a mega-outlet with both an Abercrombie, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Hollister located in one store. Worked here over the holidays and it was definitely an experience to have. A lot to be done, store manager was really great, assistant managers left something to be desired, and employees were under-trained and under-stimulated.

Willowbrook, Tx is a full-pried store that didn't work as up to speed as any of the outlet stores. Scheduling was shotty at the time and very little communication with "borrowed" employees (employees who temporarily change store branches bc college, etc.) But still a tidy store with some super nice coworkers.

Grapevine, Tx - Hollister - Younger, experienced management team trying to recover from past case of old, bad management. Employees leave something to be desired, such as Katy, but still a solid store to work at.

A typical day at work began with operational duties and preparing the store to open for business. Once open for business, my main focus was ensuring that the customers were having a great store experience and that our associates had what they needed to be successful at customer service and sales. Throughout the day I had tasks such as training, recruiting, interview, and conferencing with upper management and other stores. At least once per week I closed the store for business. 
This career taught me how manage large groups of people and how to stand-out from my peers to create my own promotions. It taught me the importance of self-reliance and that communication is key for the success of any team. 
Management styles differed from person-to-person. I worked under district managers that provided me with much support, and others that I rarely saw face-to-face. As much as I appreciate autonomy, the style of management that I flourished under was the kind that was more available. 
My co-workers were my biggest support because we all went through the same experiences and developed strong relationships. Most of them were just as enthusiastic about our brand, or even more. I learned more from some of my peers than I did from some of my direct superiors.
The hardest part of the job was managing the different personalities and occasionally encountering some resistance because I was promoted above other assistants that worked for the company longer than I did. I dealt with this by constantly building them-up and giving them new challenges that would elevate them to the level that I had reached with the company. 
The most rewarding part of the job was getting to know my associates and customers. My job was to be the leader of the team and developing them to their highest potential professionally, and seeing them succeed was very fulfilling for me.

The job isn't very hard, you get a list every morning that details any specific things the home office wants you to complete that day and once those ares done you walk in circles around the store "Floor Supervising" which in an empty store on the weekdays really means -do nothing and in a busy store means - try to keep the register line short and the store from being destroyed. I haven't learned much at this company but it did provide an example of everything i did not want from a job. The pay is terrible. its salaried at $28,000.00 when you start as an MIT and you cannot get a raise until you are promoted to Store Manager and they give you your own store. Getting your own store is much harder if you are unwilling to relocate. Recently they gave a store to a brand new employee right after he finished his MIT program because he got really good recruiting results. they didn't care that the employee in question wasn't really otherwise qualified to run a store on his own and overlooked the other 5+ Assistant managers who had been with the company, in some cases, for more than 2 years. You co-workers are great often times and so are your part time employees. if you need a paycheck while you look for a job more suited to you or just after you graduated from college and you're abercrombie and fitch "Pretty" than this is the job for you. If you are looking to start a career with a company you can advance through that this is not the company. Abercrombie and Fitch has a very high turnover rate, in the Dallas area especially. The company is much more concerned with bringing in new employees than working with the ones it already has. Since i have been employed with the company (June 2013) we have lost 1 District Manager, 2 Store Managers, 3 Assistant Mangers and at least 6 MITS that i have known personally.  They will tell you that the company offers really great promotions, and they do if you can stick with it forever and are really into the brand and recruiting and can afford to be paid nothing while they decide what they want to do with you.

I worked mostly in the back room. The big parts of my job were taking in new inventory, scanning it, censoring it, folding it and storing it in the right spot in the back room. I was also in charge of replenishing the sales floor with products from the back room that had already been purchased. Once every three months or so I would have to create new floor sets. This meant I would have to steam, un censor, and hang all the new clothing being laid out on the tables and put on manikins. I would work long shifts back to back days to make sure everything was done. Other aspects of my job were running the cash register, explaining our sales to customers and folding clothes on the sales floor. 

I learned a lot of stuff about retail. I almost feel I could manage a store myself. It was a great experience is terms of learning great customer service skills and having to be prepared to answer any of the customer's questions. I also learned about trying to get the customer to buy your product and trying to draw their attention to the product. 

Management was great. My boss James Buckles was a true inspiration to me and taught me a lot about business/marketing when I was skill in High School. He taught me a lot more than just how to work hard and I appreciated every minute of it. 

Co workers were great too. When I first started working there I was the youngest person but after working there awhile many of my friends from school began working with me. It was a fun atmosphere. 

The hardest part of the job for me was having to have everything exactly perfect. I don't mind reaching for perfection but higher up bosses would point out the little things like "the lighting is off here and should be shifted a little of there." It was hard to reach their expectations sometimes but I understood thats what we should be trying for and thats what was expected of us. 

The best part of the job was just helping the customers and just letting them know what was going on in the store. I really liked helping them out and being as nice and as helping as possible. It actually made me pretty happy.

I've worked at both an Abercrombie & Fitch and Abercrombie Kids for over a year. I worked at a kids store in San Diego and a flagship store in San Francisco. Both stores were very different. The smaller kids store was more relaxed (except on weekends) and the associates had closer bonds. The flagship store was definitely higher paced and time went by very quickly. The job is not very difficult unless working on a busy day. You will tend to fall into a routine where you do a list of certain tasks. When I first started working for the company, it was very fun. Abercrombie has a good culture where they believe that you should work hard but also have fun. As I worked there longer, I began to dislike the job. At both stores, the management was very poor. Management almost never appreciated the hard work the other associates and I were performing. Instead they acted like this was only expected even if someone was going above and beyond. In fact, if you weren't doing exactly what a manager wanted you to be doing (even if you were helping the rest of team) you would be yelled at. At both stores, the managers had no idea how to delegate their associates and therefore they were not respected in anyway. While the management is very poor at Abercrombie, there are some great reasons to work there. First of all, Abercrombie is very flexible with your availability. You basically work then you want to work based on your availability. If you wanted time off, as long as you closed it off in your availability, there was a 99.9% chance you'd get that day off. You could block off weeks at a time for breaks and vacation and company would be okay with it and keep you hired. Very few jobs are as good at getting time off. Transferring between stores is also very easy within the company. While these are great pros, the poor management made it too toxic to work there anymore. Please don't take this review to steer yourself away from Abercrombie. There may be a chance you get great managers at your store. I guess I just got unlucky.

Typlical day at work:
you’d clock in and get your 5 min meeting and usually after that you’re told to either walk around the store and helping customers while folding down to keep yourself busy, or sensor boxes filled with shipment of new clothing (usually had to sensor about 4-8 boxes) and that would be done in the front rooms where you could greet the customers as they walk in. you would also be working at the cash register, (as they put me on that as fast as they could) helping customers with their purchases or returns and handling the fitting rooms (cleaning them out, and doing go-backs). all in the span of about 4 hours. basically you only fold clothes all day. 

Management: 
management usually just told you what to do. sometimes they’ll have you do tasks that were assigned to them but they couldn’t bother doing it. If a customer was being rude and causing some fuss, the managers would usually not help you out and just stay back and watch. sometimes if you worked a closing shift which is about 5:30-10, you’d end up staying until 12 or 1 in the morning finishing up stuff that the managers were supposed to have done during the day. hours were ridiculous, as one one week you’d be scheduled for 5 days and the next you could be left with two days and both 4 hour shifts. the inconsistency is what drove others to quit as well. being paid minnimum wage which was only 11 dollars and hour and being over worked for most of the shifts, the pay does not meet the work you do. it’s not worth it to come in two days a week with a puked of work loaded onto you for 4 hours. the hours were competitive and based on the sales of the day so if the day you worked didn’t meet the sale requirement, your hours were cut. they started recruiting new associates and giving those new associates the hours that the people who’ve worked there for years or months. downright unfair. and not worth the stress. 

only thing i liked about the job was that it was flexible and my friend was working with me. 

i’d recommend this job to just kids in high school.

As an opening manager, you're responsibility is to have a set check list type of schedule to have all the tasks needed to be complete by the end of the day. You are the set example on how the store attitude should be through out the day. You must control the problems the store will bring whether it is angry customers, systems that are down, theft, etc. As closing manager, you must help the opening manager complete as much tasks as possible as well as keeping all associates zoned out correctly to make sure you have less situations to deal with. When appropriate, give redirecting feedback and positive feedbacks. Not all these tasks were easy, for the store was a high volume store and especially during the days where you are understaffed. The associates made working enjoyable and helped out plenty to where, there is one less problem to worry about. The hardest part of the job was having to be one of the worst stores with theft. But with the help of loss prevention associates, we learned quite a lot to prevent future instances.  One con that I came upon working for the company was that I do not have my degree yet, but I was good at my job, as to where the company would hire those with degrees that did not know how to work efficiently. I myself had to train those who got the job so easily as to where I had to keep pushing myself to become the equal position that they were in. Having to deal with cases of stealing and the thieves become verbal with myself is yet another part of the job that was not enjoyable what so ever. I learned plenty of skills here with the technology used, knowing how to resolve problems with customers and most importantly how to manage such a big store with what I had. Management was not always the best, but the other managers and myself got through busy seasons with short staff, important visits, and any other difficult situations that were upon us while remaining positive.

For a first job, Abercrombie & Fitch isn't too bad. The people are all really nice and for the most part, managers are easy going and fun to work underneath. However, I wouldn't recommend staying any longer than a year to two years. Raises aren't offered to part-time staff and advancement opportunities are scarce to nonexistent. The same can be said for full-time positions outside of management. Benefits are also not offered to part-time staff, aside from 401ks after working for two years with the company. 

Overall, the company is great for college-aged kids looking to hold a job through school; hours are extremely flexible and at times inconsistent, however, this makes attending school much easier. This job also works well for people that hold more than one job; managers are usually more than willing to work around schedules and typically have no problem with you requesting days off and vacations from time to time (not paid, of course.) The pay for part-time staff is low, even for retail standards (A&F's pay sits at $8.25 per hour) but if a person is holding a second job while working here, money for the most part isn't too much of a problem.

One thing I can say, though, is that favoritism exists heavily with this company. I've seen so many people in my area receive promotions that they didn't deserve (and often above people who had years of seniority over them) just because their store and district managers liked them. I guess if you can get on the good side of management, you'll be rewarded, but for those who don't practice that art, life at Abercrombie & Fitch can be tough, to the point where quitting seems like a good option. 

Overall, yes, it's a good place to work just don't make it permanent unless you want to commit to years as a part-time team member followed by spending years as an assistant manager. There are other jobs out there that will compensate better AND offer more advancement opportunities, along with the same flexibility that Abercrombie has.

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